It is just after midnight, as Christmas Eve turns to Christmas Morning. Snow lay all around Atlantis, blanketing the Fabled Realm in perfect layers of pristine white, glittering with tiny ice crystals where the moonlight danced. The snowstorm had cleared earlier in the evening, leaving the skies over the meadow clear and brilliant with a million stars. Here and there a light shined in a window as a cuddler prepared for sleep, but the land was still and quiet as the inhabitants settled down one by one to dream sugarplum dreams.

Save for one lone figure.

Tiernan Elf picked her way carefully over the cobblestone pathway leading to the Pavilion Tent. She paused there to look across the meadow, past the stage to the Carousel, her breath making frost patterns in the still night air. The moon seemed to light the snow with an ethereal glow.

"It almost seems too perfect to be real, doesn't it?" said a voice behind her.

Tiernan jumped and spun around to grin at Galahad. "What are you doing out so late, O Sweet Squire?" she said to him saucily.

"I could ask you the same thing, Elf," he laughed. "I saw you from my room up there, next to Princess TuggyBear's." He pointed up to a window, dimly lit with a single flickering candle. "And as I sometimes like to come out for a midnight stroll myself, I thought I'd join you."

"I've got something to do at the Carousel," she told him.

"At midnight?" He raised an eyebrow at her.

"It's the best time for Elven magic," Tiernan smiled at the gallant Squire and held out a hand invitingly. "Would you like to come and help?"

"Sure," Galahad replied with a delighted grin. "I've always wanted to see how the elves work magic." He took Tiernan's hand and the pair of them started off across the snowy meadow toward the Carousel, giggling as they floundered through unexpectedly deep snowdrifts and pausing to occasionally pelt one another with a fluffy, loosely packed snowball. It seemed like no time at all before they found themselves before the Carousel, out of breath and flushed with excitement, eyes sparkling like the stars overhead.

"So what's this magic we're going to work," said Galahad.

"I had a special wish I asked of Father Christmas," Tiernan answered as she fished through her pockets. "Now where did I... oh! Here it is!" She pulled a small packet out of her pocket and held it up for Galahad to see. Clearly written on it in glowing letters were the words "Santa's Magic Dust."

"Another Carousel?" Galahad asked, baffled.

"Oh, no," Tiernan replied, giggling. "This is even better. Do you remember last Christmas, how I built the Carousel from a miniature toy Carousel the Admiral gave me? With magic dust from Santa? And how Santa promised the magic would last until the every Atlantian resident had a chance to ride it?"

Galahad nodded.

"Well," Tiernan continued as she poured the content of the packet out into her cupped hand, "My wish this year is to make the Carousel really, truly a permanent part of Atlantis so that no matter what it's always here for everyone." She tucked the empty packet into her pocket and held out her other hand to Galahad. "Help me make the wish!"

Galahad took Tiernan's hand and together, they closed their eyes very tight and wished very, very hard. Then Tiernan lifted her hand full of Santa's magic dust, and she *blew*

...Nothing happened.

Tiernan stood for a moment, blinking in disbelief.

"Um", said Galahad nervously, "maybe it just takes a moment to start working in the cold."

"Maybe," Tiernan echoed doubtfully.

They stood for another long moment. Nothing continued to happen. Galahad looked down and saw a single teardrop glimmering on Tiernan's eyelash.

"Oh, oh, sweetie don't cry!" He exclaimed, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and hugging her. "We still have the Carousel, and who knows? With all the newbies, surely there will always be a resident who hasn't had a ride yet."

"I know, Galahad," she said with a sniffle. "It's just... well..."

"I know," he replied soothingly. "I know."

"WHAT'S THIS?" Boomed a voice from behind them, startling them both. "TEARS ON CHRISTMAS? CHRISTMAS IS A TIME TO BE JOYFUL!"

It was Father Christmas himself!

"Hi Santa," Tiernan managed a smile for no elf can be very sad in the presence of the Head Jolly Old Elf himself.

"What seems to be the problem, Tiernan?" Santa asked kindly.

"I don't think I wished hard enough," she told him. "Or maybe I blew too hard or something. I asked Galahad to wish with me, and we wished as hard as we could and blew the magic dust you gave me all over the Carousel, but nothing happened."

"Hmmm." Santa looked at the Carousel, tapping his chin with a finger. He walked all the way around it as Tiernan and Galahad looked at each other in bemusement. "You know, Tiernan, I do believe it's just a matter of how you look at it. Here, give me the hand you held my magic dust in." He beckoned Galahad closer as he took Tiernan's hand.

There, on her hand, several grains of magic dust gleamed. Picking one up carefully on the tip of a finger, he held it up.

"This is for when Sir Nathan put the Carousel on the map, and drew it with his special ASCII magic so everyone in the Fabled Realm could find it." He blew on the tiny grain and watched it fly like a tiny magic firefly to land on the Carousel.

"This," he continued, selecting another grain, "it for everyone who rode the Carousel when their hearts were heavy and their souls weary, for they were made a little more joyful afterward and continued on their ways with a song and a smile." Another breath, and another firefly.

And so he continued, selecting grains one by one. "This is for everyone who shared a special moment on the Carousel with a loved one, or a new significant other or just with good friends new and old. This is for the times that everyone headed for the Carousel after a dance or a party, to cap the evening off with a ride. This is for the way all of you refused to let others make the Carousel a symbol of what was wrong with Atlantis, and made it instead a symbol of what is *right* about Atlantis. And this is for the children of every cuddler who shared with them the Carousel, and this for every cuddler who found upon the Carousel a beloved prancing Charger or noble Lion or magnificent guilded Carriage from their fondest memories." One by one, he named all the things that had made the Carousel special, each and every one something given from the heart from each and every cuddler to the Carousel. Finally, there was just a single grain of magic dust left, one that glowed more brightly than all the rest. Santa picked it up carefully.

"This," he said softly, "Is for CuddleDuck and those like him who never rode the Carousel at all. This is for their generosity, and their giving and caring. They gave the most to the Carousel by going without a ride, for they made sure there would always be a Carousel in Atlantis. Their spirit of compassion and generosity is the stuff the Fabled Realm is made of."

And with that, he blew the final grain of magic dust, and Tiernan and Galahad saw that indeed, Something Had Happened to the Carousel. Not in a flash of magic dust, not in an instant's wish but day by day in the hopes and dreams and laughter and giving of each and every cuddler.

And Father Christmas threw back his head and laughed a long, loud, joyful laugh that resounded all through the Fabled Realm, bringing cuddlers popping out of their Castles and Cottages and Caves and Towers to see what all the fuss was about.

"You don't need magic dust to make the Carousel a permanent part of Atlantis!" exclaimed Santa. "All of you together have already made it a permanent part of Atlantis with the friendship and love and sharing you've all poured into it and to the Realm where it lives. That's the true Magic here, and nothing can take that away from you as long as you all Believe!" And with a swirl of his cloak he vanished, leaving behind a flurry of crystalline snowflakes and a jingling of silvery bells. And his voice echoed all around the Fabled Realm as the snowflakes settled...